Solid Storytelling. Let me preface my comments by saying it's not Harry Bosch. Does that make it less? No. Mickey Haller isn't Bosch either, but I'm warming to him and I'm sure I'll warm to Renee Ballard as well. Will I read the next Renee Ballard book? You betcha! I can see the possibilities of fleshing her out and keeping the LA stories fresh. I look forward to discovering where the crossing is for she, Haller and Bosch.

Harry Bosch will always be a favorite, but Renee Ballard, the feisty detective on the Hollywood Station night shift, will be fighting her way to the top to join him. She is unconventional and tends to stretch the rules. Though she has a partner, she often goes off on her own. Bosch would definitely approve.
In this book, she takes on two cases: the "big evil" who beat a transgender almost to death, and an unknown who disappeared after a night club hit on five people.

I recently binge-watched the first three seasons of Bosch, the TV series based on Connelly’s main series. I absolutely loved it, and that gave me the necessary kick up the backside to start reading Connelly’s novels. As it happened, I received a review copy of The Late Show, so I decided to start here. This is a fantastic introduction of a new character, and a great crime novel. This is the first novel by Michael Connelly that I’ve read. It will not be my last.

As a first book in a series, we’re only just getting to know Ballard, but Connelly does a great job of giving her enough background to feel real, while not overdoing it. Despite this being our first meeting, she already feels pretty much fully-realized. She’s a great new character, and one who I think will open up a great many possibilities for the series to come. (I’m sure there will be a cross-over with Bosch, eventually, too.) Ballard is functionally homeless: officially, she lives with her grandmother, but in reality she sleeps on the beach in a tent, benefiting from the relaxed camping rules during the day. This also allows her to surf every morning (she’s from Hawaii), to clear her head after her shifts. Like Bosch, she’s something of a loose cannon, not entirely respectful for the chain of command. A classic trope, but it doesn’t feel forced. As she investigates on her own, a few of her decisions get her into serious trouble; but we also see her pull off some inspired investigative tricks. She doesn’t play too well with others, creating and enforcing a certain distance between herself and her colleagues. This could have made it difficult to connect with her as a reader, but Connelly writes so well this wasn’t an issue.

The Late Show centres around a couple of cases — a mass-shooting at a night club, and the savage beating and attempted murder of a transgender prostitute. Other, smaller cases appear over the course of the story, but these two are the main anchors for the novel. Through Ballard’s involvement (official and otherwise), we learn more about her co-workers, superiors, and also the unacceptable event that led to her being placed on the night shift (an overly-aggressive superior with a fragile ego and delicate masculinity who couldn’t take no for an answer). She navigates the whispers in her department, her dismissive superior. She’s bonding with her new(ish) partner. She’s dealing with her previous partner, who didn’t step up to defend her in the past. And then there’s the possibility that another cop was involved in the club shooting…

I realized while reading this that I don’t read many police procedurals. As it turns out, I really like them — I loved how understated much of this novel is, stripped of the Hollywood machismo, Michael Bay-esque explosive action that can dominate some crime novels. (Not that I dislike those novels, it’s just very refreshing to read a novel that just tells it like it is.) There’s a series of scenes of genuine peril that were also presented in a non-stylized and unexaggerated manner. It made everything feel more real, more claustrophobic and terrifying.

It is clear to me why Connelly’s novels are so successful: he’s an incredible talent, who can tell gripping stories grounded by an authentic realism. It feels redundant to say this, so far into his career. I’m late to the party, sure, but let’s celebrate that I arrived at all!

An excellent crime novel, I am definitely a convert. I’ll be reading and (hopefully) catching up with the Bosch series over the course of the next few months.

The Late Show is very highly recommended to all fans of crime fiction.

The Late Show, Michael Connelly's lastest novel, inroduces us to a new detective, Renee Ballard. The novel is both a delight for Connelly's fans and will also likely create a new following with this latest protagonist. The Late Show starts slowly, building, at turns, the facts of two separate cases and Renee's character profile. Fans of Harry Bosch will no doubt see certain similarities as Detective Ballard is a no-nonsense cop who works on the outskirts of her job bringing to justice both a "big evil" killer and a suspected cop killer. Along the way, the reader is treated to a credible and substantial backstory and the suspense and rhythm of Connelly's writing. While I stop short of full blown adoration for this novel, I will most certainly look forward to the next Ballard novel.

This novel is the introduction of another new series by the author. I have been reading his books for years and have not run across one that wasn't good. This follows suit. Renee Ballard is a LAPD detective. She used to be in the homicide detail but got sent to the Hollywood Station where she was on the night shift (the late show) after accusing het LT of harassment. Her career is for all practical purposes at a dead end. She and her by the book, near retirement partner are at the hospital with the victim of a beating when they get called to follow through on a shooting victim who was one of many at a nightclub shooting. This is the start of the two cases she takes upon herself to investigate although protocol says she is supposed to turn them over to the day shift. The multiple murders investigation is being headed by the same Lieutenant she used to work with and he wants her out. I won't go any further into the plot because of spoilers, but, the plot and characters are complex and riveting. Reader's will end up with this novel rather than doing other things they have scheduled! Thanks to Net Galley and Little Brown for an ARC for an honest review.

I loved Michael Connelly's new novel. Renee Ballard is an interesting, dynamic and multi-dimensional character who is likable and relatable. The Late Show is heavy in police jargon and procedure, much more than in Connelly's Bosch books, but he does a great job of explaining without losing fluidity or storyline. I can't wait to see what comes next for Detective Ballard!

The Late Show brings us a new series from author Michael Connelly and this time, instead of Harry Bosch, it’s Renée Ballard, a detective in the Hollywood Division. Renée and her partner, Jenkins, work at night, “the midnight shift, the late show, moving from case to case, called to any scene where a detective was needed to take initial reports or sign off on suicides. But they kept no cases.” She’s been shelved and transferred to this shift following a sexual harassment complaint, which was thrown out, against Lt. Olivas. Ballard is still bruised from the experience, but she’s dealing with it, working hard, and trying to do her job.

The book opens with a call to the home of a woman whose credit card appears to have been stolen, and then it’s onto Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center for the vicious beating and torture of a young woman (later discovered to be trans gendered), but before Ballard can press for forensic tests, another victim arrives from a quadruple murder that occurred in a Hollywood Club called the Dancers. When that victim, a waitress at the club dies, Ballard goes to the club to talk to witnesses.

So we have three crimes: a credit card theft, the beating and torture of a transgender person, and a multiple homicide at the club. The shooting at the club is odd. How are the victims related? –they’re an assorted trio of felons, a bookie, an enforcer, and a drug dealer, all in the same place at the same time, shot to death. And the drug-dealing waitress was “collateral damage.”

“Did anybody in here tell you they saw the waitress get hit?”

Jenkins scanned the tables, where about twenty people were sitting and waiting. It was a variety of Hollywood hipsters and clubbers. A lot of tattoos and piercings.

“No, but from what I hear, she was waiting on the table when the shooting started,” Jenkins said. “Four men in a booth. One pulls out a hand cannon and shoots the others right where they’re sitting. people start scattering, including the shooter. He shot your waitress when he was going for the door. Took out a bouncer too.”

Ballard is supposed to pass off the cases she works on the Late Show to the day team, but this is a driven detective who, still smarting at an unjust transfer, wants more.

She manages to wrangle holding onto the transgender torture case, but since the victim is in a medically induced coma, many questions are unanswered. Ballard’s partner Jenkins is distracted by his wife’s illness, but Ballard, who likes to go solo in her personal and professional life, starts investigating both the club shooting and the torture cases on her own. …

I thought I knew the direction the plot was heading, but I’m delighted to say that I was wrong. When it comes to crime enforcement, author Michael Connelly obviously has respect for the profession, but not every cop is idealized, and many flaws fester under the badges of some of the characters in these pages. The book’s visceral tone draws the reader into Ballard’s cases, and there’s a sense of immediacy–we are there with Ballard, an intriguing protagonist, who is strong enough to lead a series. It’s fun to think that we know how all the procedures of police work, but occasionally, only occasionally, there were too many details. But apart from that niggling issue, The Late Show is a pageturner.

Review copy.

New series and a new detective, cited as female Harry Bosch but Renee Ballard is in a field of her own.
Looking forward to reading more in this series.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

For the first time in over two dozen crime novels, Michael Connelly writes about a female LAPD detective. Renée Ballard, formerly of the prestigious Robbery-Homicide Division, has been consigned to the midnight shift in Hollywood Division as punishment. She accused her lieutenant of inappropriate behavior toward her and her (male) partner refused to back her up, so her sexual harassment complaint was dismissed and she was reassigned.

The main problem with working "the late show," as the officers call it, is that the detectives aren't able to pursue cases. They get called to overnight crime scenes to collect information and present initial reports to their daytime colleagues, who then take over the cases. This suits Ballard's burned-out partner, Jenkins, just fine: he has a sick wife who needs him at home. Ballard, however, wants to sink her teeth into cases and see them through to their conclusion.

A former journalist, Ballard is a loner. Her father died when she was young and her mother abandoned her. She was raised in Hawaii by her grandmother, and she's as at home on a paddleboard as on dry land. She is virtually homeless—both at work and away from the office. She has no permanent desk, squatting at whichever one is free at the moment. When she gets off shift, she sets up a tent on the beach, retrieves her rescue dog from overnight care, and sleeps and hits the surf to build the upper body strength she needs to grapple with combative suspects. She keeps her work clothes in her locker, cycling them through the dry cleaners as needed, and uses beach showers. She does not appear to have any close friends other than the occasional hook-up, always with people who aren't on the job.

She has some things in common with Connelly's series regular, Harry Bosch, in that she feels somewhat constrained by the system in which she works. She believes there are evil people out there and it is her job to bring them to justice. She's not above cutting corners to get the job done, including making anonymous phone calls to tip lines to justify pursuing suspects, manipulating her supervisors into allowing her to investigate beyond her jurisdiction, or withholding information from her superiors, sometimes to her detriment.

During one shift, Ballard becomes involved in two investigations. The first involves the brutal beating of a transgendered individual who was left for dead with obvious signs of prolonged torture. The second is a shooting at a nightclub that left five dead and the shooter in the wind. She wants to close the assault case, despite her partner's lack of interest, and she also makes a deduction about the nightclub shooting that complicates her life, particularly because the lead on that investigation is the lieutenant she filed the complaint against.

She works her off-the-books cases during her off-hours and off days, walking a careful path through the bureaucracy and red tape of the police department. Connelly knows what it's like to be an LAPD officer: how long it takes to get forensics results, and how detectives can jump the queue in certain circumstances. He knows what the daily life of the detective is like, down to telling details about how the breakup of a partnership is similar to divorce: each member of the former partnership inherits certain of their contacts. He has also created an interesting character with a rich background and a sharp tongue. Ballard isn't an Atomic Blonde: she has limitations when battling larger, stronger adversaries, but she's also well trained and knows how to use her resources. In the current climate, though, police actions are under careful scrutiny, so even the justifiable use of force can endanger an officer's future with the department—especially when she's already as low as she can go as a detective and higher-ups are determined to see her career ended.

Ballard puts together a disparate batch of clues to solve both of her investigations and gain her some measure of good grace. However, it doesn't look like she'll be getting off the Late Show any time soon. Stay tuned for her further adventures.

This book started out slow, which is unusual for Connelly, but picked up momentum halfway through. Stick with it for an explosive ending!

Michael Connelly is the undisputed master of crime fiction. His latest, The Late Show, underscores that fact. In this tale, we meet Renee Ballard, an RHD (Robbery Homicide Division) detective whose career is on an "upward trajectory." But then she files a sexual harassment complaint against her boss, Lt. Olivas. Her partner, who witnessed the event, chooses his career path over supporting his partner and Renée is shipped off to "the late show" – – – the nighttime shift that catches an assortment of cases but doesn't get to follow them, rather handing them over to other departments the next morning. Not how Renee saw her career going. Then, one night she catches two crimes that she cannot shake. She's a tough detective, and not above bending the rules, particularly when they have been bent against her so dramatically. She grabs the cases and pursues them with almost maniacal focus, which leads her into a web of graft, corruption, greed, murder, and ultimately a near fatal encounter from which she must use all her smarts and skills to escape. This is a wonderful, well-written story and one of Connelly’s all-time best. And that’s saying a lot. I could not recommend it more highly.

DP Lyle, award-winning author, lecturer, and story consultant

Michael Connelly offers a new series starring a hard-boiled female detective with his novel “The Night Show.” Renee Ballard works the night shift on the Los Angeles Police Department and, like many of the cops that prowl at night, she got there by ruffling feathers. She’s a great addition to the female cop heroes popping up, a little addled by a tough life but not spending all her time moaning over it. Her biggest gripe is having to turn over the good stuff she uncovers at night to daytime detectives for final handling.

In one night she gets two cases she doesn’t want to lose. One involves a she male prostitute left for dead in a parking lot, and the other’s a nightclub shooting that snuffs a young waitress. The sun isn’t going dim these cases for her and against the orders of her superiors, who are already ticked at her, and the wishes of her partner, she stops getting any sleep by working both of them during the day along with handling her regular night shift. The more entangled she gets, the more the pot boils. The reader can actually feel the burn she creates in her bosses’ guts.

Connelly is a master at what he does. He knows police work inside and out. His vernacular is spot on. The back-and-forth is salty and humorous, just the way cops and crooks talk. And, best of all, his work is accurate and completely faithful to the real thing. There’s nothing hokey or whimsical here.

When I get jaded or burnt out with all the nonsense being written about police work, I always go back to the reliable crime writers to get my mind straight. Connelly is at the top of my list.

A few days ago I said I had never read a Michael Connelly book and then I siddemñy had the chance to dive into his new series featuring Renee Ballard, a young detective working the night shift ("The Late Show). This was a solid start and I enjoyed reading about the LAPD and its dynamics.

Renee has been working at night since she decided to file a complaint against one of her bosses. He was sexually harassing her, but he never admitted it and no one believed her. Her partner Chastain never helped her either and she's now working with Jenkins, another detective who wants to work the night shift because of his sick wife. But working at night isn't easy either because Jenkins and Ballard can never keep the cases (they have to handle them in the morning). However, one night, Renee deals with two different cases and decides she wants to keep investigating no matter what.

Renee Ballard is a strong and fierce character and she reminded me of Kinsey Millhone. Renee never gives up, she stands for herself and she's willing to sacrifice her sleep hours (did she even sleep more than 3 hours straight?) in order to catch the "big evil". What I liked the most about her is how much she cared about the victims and her life choices. She respected everyone and that is something that I highly value.

There are two different cases and both are equally engaging, although there's one involving police corruption and those are always more interesting because you know there's going to be a surprising revelation. I kind of expected it, but it's okay, it was a good story anyway. All in all, this was an entertaining police procedural (heavy on the procedural) and while it wasn't my favorite book ever, I loved that it featured a strong woman dealing with sexism in the police.

"If you go into darkness, the darkness goes into you. You then have to decide what to do with it. How to keep yourself safe from it. How to keep it from hollowing you out.”

Wowser, this was the perfect book at the perfect time for me. I enjoyed the h*ll out of it.

I don't know that I've ever read a Michael Connelly book that I disliked. I haven't read all of his Harry Bosch series but what I've read, I've enjoyed. Same with the Lincoln Lawyer series and I've read a lot of his other books, too.

THE LATE SHOW is an exciting police procedural introducing a new character of Connelly's - LAPD Detective Renée Ballard. She had a partner that didn't support her in a sexual harassment charge she filed on a superior and so she ended up working the 11pm to 7am night shift, also called The Late Show. Her new partner, Detective John Jenkins is pretty much by-the-book and works this shift by choice so he can be home with his cancer stricken wife during the day.

Ballard, though, is more ambitious and comes across two different cases she doesn't want to turn over to day shift detectives and she decides to work the cases in her off hours.

Loved this book. Loved the characters, especially Renée and her dog, Lola, and the surfing and paddle boarding sequences. Loved the many different cases discussed throughout the story.

Connelly is a master with characterization, exciting storylines, world building, word pictures, and police procedurals. I can always envision his books being made into movies or TV series (as some have been).

I received this book from Little, Brown and Company through Net Galley in exchange for my unbiased review.

The Late Show marks the beginning of a new series by Connelly, and it's cause for celebration. Renee Ballard is has been consigned to the Late Show, the night shift, ever since her partner failed to back her up in a sexual harassment complaint against a superior. She's a troubled but gifted investigator who must hand off all cases to the day shift each morning. Once again, L.A. Is practically a character, and force politics are always rumbling in the background, even if Ballard would rather they weren't. I look forward to further books in this series.

A quick-paced police procedural. The plot was interested, if a bit predictable, but Renee's detailed character and strong personality kept me involved. She's a dedicated cop who won't put up with chauvinistic crap or let it get in the way of her doing her job. And nothing happens to her adorable dog, so the book gets bonus points for that. Overall, good first book in a new series.

The Late Show by Michael Connelly introduces a female detective, Renee Ballard.. She is smart ,searches for the truth, and follows all leads to solve her cases. She cares about the many victims of crimes and does her best to solve them. She doesn't give up..
Perhaps because her personal life has not been easy she is more determined to help others and solve crime, She is a good female role model. I hope to read more stories about her adventures and hopes she finds a partner who she can become close to. I felt she was lonely with only her beloved dog for company.

Renee Ballard has been working the overnight shift since she ratted her former boss out for trying to pressure her into having sex with him. Cops are an insular bunch.

The overnight shift for detectives is colloquially called The Late Show. She's gotten used to it, but she'd just like to see a few cases to their end once in awhile.

One night, two cases fall onto her docket. One she talks the daytime staff into letting her keep--the brutal assault of a trans prostitute--and one she's got to be careful if she wants to dig into. The one she needs to be careful with is the mass shooting of five people at a bar.

When the main detective on the case--Renee's old partner who didn't stand up for her against the boss--shows up dead, she just can't leave this case alone. Something is seriously off about it.

Connelly has done it again. This is the start of a new series, and it's just as much of a hit as the Bosch series. Ballard is a compelling character who is shaping up to be every bit as rich and nuanced as Bosch. Connelly is a pro at what he does, and it shows. Rather than another addition to the procedural cop murder mystery genre growing a bit stale, he's written something that's enjoyable and easy to consume quickly--you read it quickly because it's entertaining and really good.

Can't wait to see the next one.

Michael Connelly introduces a new detective in The Late Show (Little, Brown and Company, digital galley), a fast moving police procedural that is hard to put down. Renée Ballard works the LAPD overnight shift, responding to everything from burglaries to homicides. Because she has to hand off all of her cases at the end of her shift, she rarely gets to see anything through to completion. 

When Ballard becomes particularly attached to two cases -- the beating of a prostitute and a mass shooting at a nightclub -- she goes against the wishes and backs of her partner and LAPD brass to dig deeper and try to get some closure.

Connelly is a master story teller and with Ballard introduces a new character who is well versed in modern police work. She is at home navigating cell phones and computer databases in a way that Connelly's other fictional detective, Harry Bosch, is not.

The Late Show is the first of a new series featuring Ballard and will allow Connelly to explore some different aspects of detective work. And even write about cases other than homicide. But fans of Bosch and Mickey Haller should not despair, Connelly tells us in a Q&A interview at the Omnivoracious book blog that he has a new book featuring those characters coming out in the fall.

Renée Ballard is a good LAPD detective but when she made waves in the department by telling the Brass that her boss was sexually harassing her things got tough. Now as one of her punishments, she has been assigned to the Late Shift (night duty). That doesn't stop Renée from being a thorough and dedicated cop. It is fascinating to see how she investigates, builds her cases, and solves crimes. Lots of suspense, action, and great writing!